Guest guest Posted April 29, 2003 Report Share Posted April 29, 2003 April 30 2003 Dear Listmembers, I just read chapter 7 ('Bian Zheng Lun Zhi the Emergent Pivot of Contemporary " ) of Volker Sheid's book in Contemporary China Plurality and Synthesis (Duke University Press 2002) . One of Volker's thesis in this chapter is the " non-existence of bian zheng lun zhi before l950 " (p. 203). And in footnote 19 of this chapter explaining his thesis, Volker contends that " So much is admitted even in contemporary China medical discourse , though from the teleological perspective of historical materialism. " (p.337) While the chapter has clearly traced the emergence' of bian zheng lun zhi from the Maoist historical materialistic perspective , the thesis failed to do justice to bian zheng lun zhi from the philosohical perspective of 'doing' or from the contemporary philosophy of science perspective of seeing bian zheng lun zhi as a 'field of practical activity " ( Rouse J. l987, Knowledge and Power : Toward A Political Philosophy of Science. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, p. XI) i.e. a field of practice . Whilst some (or even the majority ) of contemporary TCM scholars in Mainland China like Fang Yao Zhong have been influenced heavily by the teleological perspective of historical materialsm there are other scholars like Zhao Yin Jian who while paying lip service to the Maoist line on intergrating TCM with WM in the forword of his book zhong yi zheng hou zhen duan zhi liao xue Diagnostics and Therapeutics of TCM's Clinical Pattern on the otherhand creaitively continued the field of practice of bian zheng lun zhi in the body of his book and thus overcame the 'discontinuities' imposed by the Maoist line . There are also contemporary TCM scholars in Taiwan like Hong Yan-Hsu (the founder of the Oriental Healing Arts Institute ) whose work bears testimony to the continuities of the practice of biang zheng lun zhi from ancient to contemporary times. In the book Shang Han Lun The Great Classic of which Prof. Hong Yan Hsu co-translated (from the Chinese into English ) with other scholars , Prof. Hong translates the concept of zheng into English as 'confirmation' ( " A confirmation is a constellation of symptoms , plus the treatment required. " p. xv) ) As a result of the foregoing, even today in this current period of worldwide fight against the SARS Pestilential Qi , we bear witness to the continuing life of bian zheng lun zhi in its plural and synthetic forms. Regards, Rey Tiquia Phd Candidate Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science The University of Melbourne Australia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 1, 2003 Report Share Posted May 1, 2003 At 2:10 PM +1000 4/30/03, rey tiquia wrote: Hong Yan-Hsu (the founder of the Oriental Healing Arts Institute ) whose work bears testimony to the continuities of the practice of biang zheng lun zhi from ancient to contemporary times. In the book Shang Han Lun The Great Classic of which Prof. Hong Yan Hsu co-translated (from the Chinese into English ) with other scholars , Prof. Hong translates the concept of zheng into English as 'confirmation' ( " A confirmation is a constellation of symptoms , plus the treatment required. " p. xv) ) -- Hmmm...despite his definition above, I'm not sure that this is how he is using the term. However, my translation skills are negligible, so please correct me if I've got this wrong. Looking at Hsu's translation of the SHL, he uses the word 'confirmation' many times when the text he is translating does not have a character for zheng. That is, he appears to insert this term at his own discretion. It's not at all clear (to me) that he is referring to what we would call a pattern; or that he is using the term confirmation/pattern as it is used in the SHL text he is translating. For example, on page 27 he translates: " The combined confirmation of greater yang and lesser yang diseases... " . This clearly refers to diseases, the character for bing/diseases appears in the text he is translating, and there is no character for zheng/pattern. Mitchell translates the same text as: " When in greater yang and lesser yang combination disease... " (page 159).The Chinese text, (both OHAI's and Paradigm's versions), when referring to the six divisions, always refers to them as bing/disease, not as zheng/pattern (ie tai yang bing, not tai yang zheng). Rory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 1, 2003 Report Share Posted May 1, 2003 The combined confirmation of greater yang and lesser yang diseases...". This clearly refers to diseases, the character for bing/diseases appears in the text he is translating, and there is no character for zheng/pattern. Mitchell translates the same text as: "When in greater yang and lesser yang combination disease..." (page 159).The Chinese text, (both OHAI's and Paradigm's versions), when referring to the six divisions, always refers to them as bing/disease, not as zheng/pattern (ie tai yang bing, not tai yang zheng). >>>I think much of his translation come from the Japanese traditions, which do not use patterns in the same way we think of them in TCM alon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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